


Petty Revenge

by Llama1412



Category: Arthurian Mythology, Arthurian Mythology & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23365528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama1412/pseuds/Llama1412
Summary: In order to escape the pain of a life of being bullied, Myrddin makes a choice between doing the right thing and taking revenge.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Petty Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very different take on the Arthurian Legends. It was written in response to November 2010, when so many people took their lives as a result of bullying. This story is written in the form of a story meant to be told aloud.
> 
> Originally posted to livejournal in Jan 2011. Posted unedited.

In a time long since past, there grew a fatherless boy called Myrddin. This child endured a great deal of teasing and harassing because, not only did he not have a father, but he wasn't all that good at any of the things boys were expected to do in the village and his features were rather more fitting for a woman than a man.  
  
And so he grew up to the calls of the other boys claiming that his father had left him because he was too girly, because he was a pathetic disappointment who would rather pick flowers in the forest than roughhouse and play in the mud.  
  
And the problem with children, as you might know, is that children tend to believe what they're told unless given contradicting evidence. And Myrddin was too ashamed to go to his mother, afraid she'd confirm what the boys had told him and add that she too viewed him as a waste of space. And so he kept quite and was told continuously that he was useless, that he was a pathetic girl, that they would be better off with a lame goat helping them plow the fields.  
  
The forest was his only solace. The boys were too afraid to venture into the forest, not when they could hear the desperate baying of wild animals come nightfall. But Myrddin, Myrddin knew the forest better than anything else and the forest always welcomed him, allowed him to pretend that the leaves and branches could talk and cared not that he was incapable of planting a field, that he was generally useless at most that he tried to do.  
  
It was with one of his many escapes into the forest that his life changed forever. By complete chance, he stumbled upon the campsite of four men, huddled around the fire, laughing and cajoling each other. He'd learned, through years of running away from those stronger than him, how to be quiet, and so it was a task of nothing to duck into the tree cover and burrow away from any who might want to harm him.  
  
Only the men weren't talking about harming him. No, the men were bandits and they were planning on raiding Myrddin's village and leaving none alive.  
  
It was only fear and long practice that kept Myrddin from giving himself away at that revelation as he snuck back the way he came, prepared to warn the villagers and prove that he wasn't completely useless, that even he, pathetic girly Myrddin, could save their lives.  
  
And that was when it occurred to him. Why should he? His mother was away in another village, trading wares, and no one else had cared enough about him to defend him to the bullies, to stand up for him, to teach him some self-worth.  
  
And Myrddin...Myrddin wouldn't waste a tear on them should they no longer be around to harm him. And what do you know, with the bandits coming, they wouldn't be able to hurt him anymore, would they?  
  
Relieved, with the end of his pain in sight, Myrddin ran to the little cottage he shared with his mother and gathered everything he could into a little rucksack. He was quiet and he was thorough and when he walked straight out of the village, no one saw him leave and no one thought anything of his lack of presence.  
  
And Myrddin determinedly strode forward. He didn't stop, not when night fell and the screams and yells of his once-family filled the sky, not when a spark lit up the horizon and his once-home burned.  
  
He didn't stop and he regretted only that those who had caused him pain didn't know that this was their punishment, that this was his way of ensuring that no one else ever suffered at their hands.  
  
And years later, as he carried that history with him, he never once mourned the deaths of those who had caused him so much hurt.  
  
And for all those who have ever hurt another to make themselves feel better, let this serve as a lesson. There are so many wonderful things about each and every person; don't ruin your potential by letting your insecurity bring out the worst in yourselves and others. Don't create victims to lead to your ruin. Because no matter how different someone is, how much they defy the way you define the world, they are still people and so are you.  
  
Thank you.


End file.
